"The Cosby Show" star and Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad will star in the pilot of the CBS drama "For Justice," according to Variety.com.

The show, which is based on James Patterson’s novel "The Thomas Berryman Number," will feature Rashad as Georgina Howe, a gay woman in Washington who works in a Civil Rights Division and has been discriminated against due to her sexual orientation and race.

Ava DuVernay ("Selma," "Scandal") will direct the pilot, which explores Howe's conflicts with loyalty to her family and her co-workers.